Manjunath Bhathttps://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat
A Member of the Gartner Blog NetworkFri, 08 Feb 2019 08:44:02 +0000en-UShourly1Four Steps to Adopt Open-Source Software as Part of the DevOps Toolchainhttps://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2019/02/08/four-steps-to-adopt-open-source-software-as-part-of-the-devops-toolchain/
https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2019/02/08/four-steps-to-adopt-open-source-software-as-part-of-the-devops-toolchain/#commentsFri, 08 Feb 2019 07:20:01 +0000https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/?p=183If you love open-source as much as I do, dig in to the research that Chris Little, Daniel Betts and I put together to help you adopt OSS as part of your DevOps toolchain. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed working on it. Four Steps to Adopt Open-Source Software as Part of […]

]]>If you love open-source as much as I do, dig in to the research that Chris Little, Daniel Betts and I put together to help you adopt OSS as part of your DevOps toolchain. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed working on it.

]]>https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2019/02/08/four-steps-to-adopt-open-source-software-as-part-of-the-devops-toolchain/feed/1Thoughts and Top Trends from the Tech Show IFA 2018https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2018/09/09/thoughts-and-top-trends-from-the-tech-show-ifa-2018/
https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2018/09/09/thoughts-and-top-trends-from-the-tech-show-ifa-2018/#respondSun, 09 Sep 2018 02:43:01 +0000https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/?p=179Top Trends: Ecosystem around conversational interfaces getting stronger One of the top trends is that conversational interfaces underpinned by AI technologies now have an ecosystem developing around them. While Apple and Google dominate the mobile-first ecosystem through their respective platforms and app stores, Amazon Alexa and Google voice assistant present the next frontier for a […]

One of the top trends is that conversational interfaces underpinned by AI technologies now have an ecosystem developing around them. While Apple and Google dominate the mobile-first ecosystem through their respective platforms and app stores, Amazon Alexa and Google voice assistant present the next frontier for a new voice-first, zero-touch ecosystem.

Bang & Olufsen ‘Beosound Edge’ that supports both and has an intriguing design that allows the speaker to rest on its edge as well as be mounted on the wall.

Voice control is going to be a mainstream technology in a few years. Gartner predicts by 2022, more than 50% of premium white goods in developed markets will have a voice interface, up from less than 1% in 2018.

Challenge: Although voice assistants are getting adept at natural language processing, the technology is not at a point where context is adequately preserved to carry out a meaningful conversation. The diversity in language dialects and accents adds to the complexity. However, these are merely growing pains and the technology will mature.

The second trend seems to be the emergence of dual screen notebooks. Dual screen notebooks aim to meet the needs of both creativity and productivity. Lenovo launched the YOGA BOOK C930, one that includes both an LCD for regular work and an EInk display that serves as an e-reader and scratchpad.

One of the other interesting trends I noticed was how laptops are increasingly becoming bezel-less. Smartphones pretty much are bezel-less these days, but laptops have caught on as well. The Acer Swift 5 has a screen to body ratio of 87.6% while the Swift 7 takes it even higher to 92%. Dell XPS 13 and the newer Macbooks have killed the bezel as well.

Key Insight: If you want to see where laptops are heading, just see how smartphones evolve. Laptops manufacturers are asking themselves – what if this were a mobile device. What would users expect of it? Then optimize the aesthetics of laptops around the mobile form factor.

What took me by surprise was the unveiling of new smartwatches based on Google Wear OS by the likes of Skagen, Diesel and Casio. This brings the same competition to the smartwatch segment that smartphones have seen for a long time. Right now, consumers don’t have many options in terms of price and functionality. Google Wear OS based watches ups the ante for a market that is starved of choice.

]]>https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2018/09/09/thoughts-and-top-trends-from-the-tech-show-ifa-2018/feed/0Use Digital Workplace Programs to Augment, Not Replace, Humans With AIhttps://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2018/09/02/use-digital-workplace-programs-to-augment-not-replace-humans-with-ai/
https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2018/09/02/use-digital-workplace-programs-to-augment-not-replace-humans-with-ai/#respondSun, 02 Sep 2018 11:50:21 +0000https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/?p=130In a world that increasingly makes the AI-doomsday seem imminent, it is easy for the voice of reason to be silenced. Hence my colleague , Matt Cain and I decided to write a piece of research earlier this year that can act as signal amidst all the noise of doom and gloom. In our research titled […]

]]>In a world that increasingly makes the AI-doomsday seem imminent, it is easy for the voice of reason to be silenced. Hence my colleague , Matt Cain and I decided to write a piece of research earlier this year that can act as signal amidst all the noise of doom and gloom.

In our opinion, introducing AI into the workplace is indeed a seismic shift. It creates a step-function change in how we deliver services that spans every single vertical. But, what exactly changes and why should you care?

Change #1: AI will require workers to be more human. Ironically, it is not something we desire.

One of the understated benefits of AI is that it allows humans to do what we are (or at least should be ) innately good at and allows machines to do things they are good at. This ‘separation of concerns‘ creates a centaur that amplifies human capabilities and hands off robotic and repetitive tasks to machines.

This is the first paradox – we are unwilling to adapt to this change – a way of working that will cause us to be more human-like. But why, you may ask?

Because being ‘truly human‘ is hard. It requires imagination, empathy, curiosity, critical thinking, passion,creativity – you get the idea. Being human requires us to eschew routine tasks, tasks that only give an illusion of being productive. Being human requires us to embrace creative work, work that is uniquely suited for human beings. In fact, work that is carved out to harness the the expertise and behavior of a specific individual. (Ex: you know how you go to a restaurant and want to be served by a specific waiter because you hit it off the last time? )

That’s partly the answer – Creativity is (largely) diminished as we grow up because of the nature of standardized education and nature of employment. So, the less it is expected of us, the easier life seems. If you want to dig deeper, look up Do schools kill creativity? | Sir Ken Robinson (Best TED talk ever, IMHO)

Imagination is more powerful than Knowledge – Albert Einstein

Change #2: AI requires humans to take an ‘outside-in’ view of their jobs

Applying design thinking approaches to one’s own job involves taking a step back, rethinking the actual customer problem and identifying scenarios where machines best complement humans in supporting the customer. It applies equally to both non-routine (requiring greater cognitive abilities) and routine (mechanical and repeatable) tasks. This approach reveals the second paradox — those who re-imagine their own jobs with an aim to replace themselves will not be replaced, but instead will influence the direction of the organization’s AI strategy.

One of the prime targets for AI-enabled disruption is the human functioning as an intermediary for relaying information in the “request-response chain.” The human in this case adds little value beyond fetching data from systems of record, and hence is primed for disintermediation (see Figure below).

We should elevate the role of humans to provide personalized insights using the unique knowledge of the business domain and the customer, while delegating the responsibility of fetching repetitive information to AI-based virtual assistants.

]]>https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2018/09/02/use-digital-workplace-programs-to-augment-not-replace-humans-with-ai/feed/0Create a better workplace by experimenting with ‘Inductive Flow’https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2017/10/01/create-a-better-workplace-by-experimenting-with-inductive-flow/
https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2017/10/01/create-a-better-workplace-by-experimenting-with-inductive-flow/#respondSun, 01 Oct 2017 14:26:01 +0000https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/?p=123Source: http://likesuccess.com/img3604410 I propose the idea of “Inductive Flow” as an extension (corollary) to the original idea proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi in his seminal work – The Psychology of Optimal Experience. As described here, “flow – a state of concentration so focused that it amounts to absolute absorption in an activity. Everyone experiences flow from time […]

I propose the idea of “Inductive Flow” as an extension (corollary) to the original idea proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi in his seminal work – The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

As described here, “flow – a state of concentration so focused that it amounts to absolute absorption in an activity. Everyone experiences flow from time to time and will recognize its characteristics: people typically feel strong, alert, in effortless control, unselfconscious, and at the peak of their abilities. Both a sense of time and emotional problems seem to disappear, and there is an exhilarating feeling of transcendence.

The hypothesis is – like electromagnetic induction creates a voltage across an electrical conductor in the presence of a changing magnetic field, is it possible that the state of Flow is also similarly induced? Flow is induced in the observer in the presence of a doer experiencing it. For if not, how can we explain a feeling of intense bliss watching an artist performing art or a musician performing music when they are each in a state of flow?

I conclude rather naively (or maybe not!) that Flow need not be limited to the doer, but is induced in the observer observing a person in a state of Flow. I am not an expert in neuroscience, but can ascertain through circumstantial evidence.

I use ‘Inductive Flow’ to explain certain phenomena that I regularly observe happening around us in the workplace and outside:

Productivity can be exponentially amplified when you put an extremely productive person in a group of otherwise average performers. The flow induced causes them to perform better.

You experience Flow (a state of bliss) even when you are simply watching a magician at his best or a passionate speaker. Isn’t it true that you cannot engage the audience on a topic unless you feel the passion in the topic yourself. So, here we are again seeing a state of Flow induced in the listener merely through an act of observing a doer experiencing FLOW.

What’s next? Sit next to a person in a state of Flow. I bet you will end the day on a better note.

]]>https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2017/10/01/create-a-better-workplace-by-experimenting-with-inductive-flow/feed/0The Detrimental Impact of Context Switches on Creativityhttps://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2017/08/12/the_detrimental_impact_of_context_switches_on_creativity/
https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2017/08/12/the_detrimental_impact_of_context_switches_on_creativity/#respondSat, 12 Aug 2017 05:17:29 +0000https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/?p=78Note: This is a repost of a previous blog as-is with a clearer title and a picture that led me to a AHA moment. It has long been said that technology is not a cure for human fallibility. In this blog post, I delve upon one of the leading causes for human fallibilities – the […]

]]>Note: This is a repost of a previous blog as-is with a clearer title and a picture that led me to a AHA moment.

It has long been said that technology is not a cure for human fallibility. In this blog post, I delve upon one of the leading causes for human fallibilities – the overhead associated with emotional “buffer overflow” and “context switch”.

Image source: Twitter user @phil_wade

In a computing system, a context switch occurs when the operating system and the CPU swaps out processes or threads to execute other processes or threads. Context switches are a result of “scarce availability” of a “shared resource”. Did I mention context switches are costly? Well, you guessed it – they are very expensive and they result in decreased throughput and increased latency. Much of performance optimization revolves around minimizing the cost associated with the transition from one task to another – essentially trying to nullify the impact of a context switch.

Turns out, the human brain is no different. In fact, the cost is not only profound but also non-deterministic making it worse than context switches in a computing system. Where this gets even more complicated is how emotion and logic interweave to create an unpredictable outcome in human behavior. That’s one of the reasons, being busy is actually counter-productive, as paradoxical as it may sound. And if I may add, the goals of ensuring productivity and infusing creativity are orthogonal. You can only acheive a trade-off. You cannot maximize both at the same time.

Being busy is actually counter-productive, as paradoxical as it may sound. Productivity is inversely proportional to creativity.

As much as the world has focused on “work-life” balance, what we really need is “work-work” balance so that the emotional, intellectual and cognitive state can be effectively “swapped out” between work transitions. We achieve optimal levels of performance by restoring the brain to a state of ‘tabula rasa’ (the absence of preconceived ideas or predetermined biases, void of any innate prejudice). This is rarely the case in most situations. A system designed to ensure maximum productivity can result in “buffer overflows” of emotional reactions and decision fatigue that prove detrimental to achieving peak performance.

As much as the world has focused on “work-life” balance, what we really need is “work-work” balance so that the emotional, intellectual and cognitive state can be effectively “swapped out” between work transitions.

A carryover of emotional state from one event to another has side-effects on objectivity. Objectivity requires the mind to be in a state of equilibrium and dispassion. The digital world further exposes us to multiple channels of distractions drastically reducing our focus. Every distraction is a context switch and every context switch in turn has a disastrous effect on performance.

Objectivity requires the mind to be in a state of equilibrium and dispassion.

It is upon Digital Workplace leaders to create an environment where human beings can achieve peak performance through a positive interplay of cognition, creativity and emotion, all working in perfect harmony. Such an environment will ensure that every task is performed with the objectivity (reason) and subjectivity (intuition) tailored to the current task at hand, not leftovers from previous endeavors.

]]>https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2017/08/12/the_detrimental_impact_of_context_switches_on_creativity/feed/0Technology evolution seems to follow Maslow’s hierarchy of needshttps://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2017/07/02/technology-evolution-seems-to-follow-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs/
https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2017/07/02/technology-evolution-seems-to-follow-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs/#respondSun, 02 Jul 2017 10:04:47 +0000https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/?p=87Disclaimer: As with all Gartner blog posts, the views in this post are not peer-reviewed and should be treated as personal views. Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, needs no introduction. The theory now serves as a guiding principle for human motivation worldwide. Being a tech enthusiast, I find remarkable similarity between how human beings and […]

]]>Disclaimer: As with all Gartner blog posts, the views in this post are not peer-reviewed and should be treated as personal views.

Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, needs no introduction. The theory now serves as a guiding principle for human motivation worldwide.

Being a tech enthusiast, I find remarkable similarity between how human beings and technologies alike progress through their life cycle. Well, the basic similarity is that both human beings and technologies ‘come alive’ and ‘die’ eventually – generally being superseded by a superior generation.

In the below figure, I adapt Maslow’s hierarchy to technology evolution and it becomes evident how devices such as the iPhone have followed a very similar growth curve. Human beings and technologies follow the same trajectory going from basic I/O to a desire for complete autonomy.

(Physiological needs) > (Basic Input Output)

Almost every technology starts with converting some form of input into meaningful output. In many cases such as IoT and M2M, the I/O doesn’t necessarily have a human interface. I/O is the primordial origins of technology. Let us not ignore how important it is to get this right. For every input under every condition, the output has to be reasonably accurate and fast. Fast and accuracy are relative terms, but you get the point.

(Safety needs) > (Security and Usability)

As technologies become reliable for their basic function, there is a growing expectation to then protect the data being processed or ingested. I don’t mean that security is an ‘after-thought’ but in the evolution of technology, security has no meaning if the technology cannot accomplish what it set out to do in the first place. In the same way that the smartphones were first introduced as consumer-friendly and later deemed as enterprise-secure after MDM controls were added.

Usability is a crucial complement to security at the second level. In fact, technologies prematurely die because of friction in user experience i.e. an experience gap. While basic I/O is an important first step, without usability and data security, it will end up as an artifact in a technology museum.

(Belongingness and Esteem) > (Digital Ecosystem)

Much as people crave for a sense of belonging, technologies are better off when they are part of an ecosystem, that cares. The ecosystem provides an environment where technologies go from striving to thriving. The stronger the ecosystem, the greater the viability. Ecosystems also provide a forward momentum so technologies can grow merely through network effects.

(Self-actualization/transcendence) > (autonomy/foundational)

As the technologies progress towards the tip of the pyramid, those that harness their own data and use analytics for self-improvement tend to develop attributes of autonomy and provide value without a need for instruction. It’s the same sense of autonomy one strives for in their pursuit of self-actualization.

This is a valuable analogy – both human beings and technologies need to work on their ‘quantified self’ in order to continuously improve.

Technologies that reach ‘self-transcendence’ i.e. enable and empower others gain the status of becoming ‘foundational’. Foundational technologies have an incredible influence on their ecosystem so much so that the ecosystem crumbles if they falter.

As with all forms of life and technology, a better variant rises to the top and the same cycle repeats.

]]>https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2017/07/02/technology-evolution-seems-to-follow-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs/feed/0Unlock Digital Business opportunities using EMM capabilitieshttps://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2017/03/04/unlock-digital-business-opportunities-using-emm-capabilities/
https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2017/03/04/unlock-digital-business-opportunities-using-emm-capabilities/#commentsSat, 04 Mar 2017 05:31:50 +0000https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/?p=64Chris Silva and I recently published a research note, along with a few case studies on how organizations can use EMM capabilities to go beyond management and security of mobile devices. Unlock Mobile Digital Business Opportunities Using Enterprise Mobility Management Capabilities This blog post is not supposed to be an abstract of that note, but […]

This blog post is not supposed to be an abstract of that note, but to provoke readers on how to exploit the capabilities of a key technology to its fullest potential. Both as EMM providers and EMM users.

EMM is the most underutilized tool in the IT toolbox.

EMM is the most underutilized tool in the IT toolbox. I say this with great agony. Having seen the evolution of EMM from its MDM days and its future as UEM, I personally think that the current state of EMM is unfortunately due to its origins as a device ‘management’ utility. It is one of those accidents in history where MDM shot to fame to manage the onslaught of Apple devices in the enterprise, but never went on to realize what it is actually capable of. It remained enslaved forever to the APIs exposed by the underlying operating system or proprietary OEM APIs to enable slightly advanced use cases.

The perception that EMM is nothing more than a tool to manage policies on mobile devices is deep-rooted in the IT psyche. I would argue that using EMM for policy management alone is akin to buying a Ferrari only to visit the local supermarket once a week.

I would argue that using EMM for policy management alone is akin to buying a Ferrari only to visit the local supermarket once a week.

I make this claim from the viewpoint of a software innovator. If EMM providers wait for demand generation and organizations end up waiting for features in the product, innovation gets caught up in this cycle where we are not doing justice to the latent potential. Customers in general expect less from EMM tools than what they are actually capable of delivering.

Case in point: EMM “agents” are uniquely positioned to enable the transition of tasks across device platforms. But we don’t see EMM tools delivering these capabilities yet.

Microsoft, Google and Apple are building proprietary interfaces that provide contextual authentication and continuity of actions between devices within their own ecosystem. On Apple devices for instance, Handoff and Continuity between iOS and Mac OS enable actions that seamlessly transition a task from one device to another.

EMM tools can extend the benefits of similar capabilities to platforms that don’t support it yet and provide a platform-agnostic way to manage business continuity. EMM agents on managed devices can enable the contextual transition of activities by detecting proximity between devices registered with the same user.

What should we do?

Organizations must view EMM as a must-have tool to enable digital transformation, not merely as a tool to wrap policies around corporate email delivery.

As organizations go from mere digitization of their business workflows to digitalization of their entire business model, EMM should be used to deliver an ubiquitous digital experience for employees and customers alike. Mobile endpoints are largely the front end of the digital experience for the customer and probably will become the only experience of your customer service – and so, it is imperative that we unlock the complete capabilities of this technology.

Like I mention in our research, mobile apps running on smartphones and tablets need not be the only interface between you and your customer. It is just one of the many. And it may not even be the ideal interface in many cases. When we take “digital to the core”, every connected device becomes an interface that we can interact with. EMM should go from being the “glue” or “plumbing layer” to becoming a foundational “intelligence layer” underpinning all digital interactions.

Extract the pearls of “insights” from the oyster of “data” stockpiled within EMM systems.

Chris and I are working on how organizations can extract the “pearls” of insights from the “oyster” of data stockpiled within EMM systems. Organizations are already using EMM data for analyzing asset utilization, app allocations, data usage optimization – but we have just scratched the surface. EMM has all the ingredients of a ‘Decision support system’. But the larger issues of user data privacy take precedence and will play a bigger role in the days ahead.

The new ‘tug of war’ is not between security and user convenience, but between users’ need for a contextually relevant user experience and their own data privacy. Sadly, this battle can be won only through tradeoffs – inevitably leading to sub-optimal solutions.

]]>https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2017/03/04/unlock-digital-business-opportunities-using-emm-capabilities/feed/1What can organizations learn from the Hardy-Ramanujan style of collaboration?https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2016/08/31/what-can-organizations-learn-from-the-hardy-ramanujan-style-of-collaboration/
https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2016/08/31/what-can-organizations-learn-from-the-hardy-ramanujan-style-of-collaboration/#commentsWed, 31 Aug 2016 06:12:51 +0000https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/?p=26This essay is about fostering collaboration in the workplace using lessons from the Hardy-Ramanujan story. These two people may appear very different on the surface, but are characterized by a passionate love for a subject they deeply cared about. Collaboration in the age of smartphones has come to mean ‘an act of working towards a […]

]]>This essay is about fostering collaboration in the workplace using lessons from the Hardy-Ramanujan story. These two people may appear very different on the surface, but are characterized by a passionate love for a subject they deeply cared about.

Collaboration in the age of smartphones has come to mean ‘an act of working towards a common goal through exchange of ideas by instant communication’. I want to impress upon the reader that this represents a very shallow definition. Collaboration has become all about the tools and processes. It’s become more about how quickly and easily I can “socialize” my ideas. Social tools do their best to promote this concept by allowing the most popular ideas to bubble up either by way of ‘likes’ or ‘ratings’. The resulting Groupthink is the root of all evil that surrounds mediocrity in the world today. Groupthink, up votes, ratings, etc. is good for solving tactical problems not for setting the strategic direction of a company or to put it in perspective, not good enough for identifying the hidden “Davids” among the several “Goliaths”.

Real collaboration dates back even to the days before the advent of email and the Internet; when we just had snail-mail. True collaboration is possible only when there is desire between individuals to seek each other’s benefit. This does not require tools, but a cultural shift in the mindset of individuals, companies and industries as a whole.

Collaboration is best exemplified by the relationship between G.H Hardy, the famous mathematician and S. Ramanujan, the mathematical genius from India who would have died an unknown death, had it not been for Hardy. Hardy saw in Ramanujan the potential to become one of the brightest minds the field of number theory has ever had. He compared Ramanujan to Euler and pushed him to prove his theorems even when he was completely aware that Ramanujan’s formulas did not require proof. One would hastily describe the relation between Ramanujan and Hardy as a mentor and mentee.

However, at an individual level, they held extremely opposite belief systems. They were as contrasting characters as you can possibly imagine. Hardy was a professed atheist; Ramanujan an ardent devotee of a personal God. Hardy didn’t believe in intuition; Ramanujan claimed all his theorems come to him as flashes of intuition. Hardy asked for proofs; Ramanujan said “You don’t need them, I know it’s true”. When pushed hard, Ramanujan would provide the proofs so Hardy could get him published in the Journal of the London Mathematical Society. He was finally elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society due to Hardy’s relentless efforts.

The Hardy-Ramanujan relationship exemplifies the true meaning of collaboration. It’s the desire of one human to recognize and unravel the latent potential in another. It’s the desire to seek the betterment of the other party – this is not just professionalism at its best. This is humanism at its best. For example, true collaboration reflects the freedom of a shop-floor engineer to inform the management they are out of touch with ground reality.

Collaboration requires a people-centric approach. Organizations typically institutionalize processes to foster collaboration and put metrics in place to measure it – as if it were some kind of a physical attribute. On the contrary, collaboration can never be forced upon no matter how intuitive the tools. Measuring collaboration to ensure it does not die a painful death has an opposite effect. You rob the process of the very joy that fuels it.

So the mindless pursuit of collaboration as if it were an end in itself will prove detrimental as the real value lies in the content and the intent behind the collaborative effort. As commendable as Hardy’s own contributions are, his greatest contribution to mathematics can arguably be hailed as the discovery of Ramanujan himself.

People collaborate because of the desire within, not because of processes without. Create a culture that fosters this desire in more people, so your organization is not deprived of future Ramanujans due to lack of enough Hardys. And don’t forget to reward the Hardys!

]]>https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2016/08/31/what-can-organizations-learn-from-the-hardy-ramanujan-style-of-collaboration/feed/1Why is Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) so difficult to get right?https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2016/06/14/why-is-enterprise-mobility-management-emm-so-difficult-to-get-right/
https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/2016/06/14/why-is-enterprise-mobility-management-emm-so-difficult-to-get-right/#commentsTue, 14 Jun 2016 09:06:06 +0000https://blogs.gartner.com/manjunath-bhat/?p=8Does EMM have to be so difficult? This is a question that bothers me very much, every single day. I mean from the perspective of the customer. Expectations soar high every time there’s a mention of an EMM implementation. And every time I feel I know the answer, there’s ‘one more thing’ that gets added […]

]]>Does EMM have to be so difficult? This is a question that bothers me very much, every single day. I mean from the perspective of the customer. Expectations soar high every time there’s a mention of an EMM implementation. And every time I feel I know the answer, there’s ‘one more thing’ that gets added to the EMM definition that makes it all the more elusive. And there it is – that’s exactly why. EMM means many things to many people.

CIOs and the IT Operations teams view EMM as a tool to improve operational efficiency in managing mobile assets (asset inventory) and monitoring their compliance status. Business Unit Leaders want EMM to help their sales teams access corporate resources anywhere, anytime on any device they prefer so they can enable their salesforce with real-time information. And employees want to be able to be good citizens of the workplace and be more productive without waiting for the right time and place.

CISO’s and the Security teams rely on EMM as a reliable tool to set security policies on the device, prevent data leakage from applications, ensure regulatory compliance by enforcing encryption and so on.

Not only are we dealing with two orthogonal requirements, we are also looking at a single tool that literally becomes a ‘swiss-army knife’. A tool that has to meet the diverse requirements of diverse industries. And a tool that has to keep pace and be built on top of an ever changing OS platform.

I like to use the metaphor of the ‘Operating system for the Digital Workplace’ to explain the complexity of EMM.

The Magic Quadrant for EMM was published last week. This year we have a few new vendors that made it to the MQ and a few that were left out or simply disappeared. Interestingly, there are no challengers this year. In many ways, this market is unique in that every vendor approaches it with a vision that they beleive will define the next ‘Digital Workplace’. Most solutions will appear to have very similar foundational components, but are yet very different when it comes to actually using them. I like to use the metaphor of the ‘Operating system for the Digital Workplace’ to explain the complexity of EMM.

Amidst all this chaos is the misconception that EMM equates to mobile security. And Gartner frequently encounters questions such as – ‘Do I need anti-malware when I already have an EMM tool in place?’ or ‘Can I extend existing investments in antivirus utilities on the PC to mobile devices?’

The journey has just begun for most organizations. Organizations that have no management in place are starting out with MDM, others are beginning to manage and secure apps via MAM, few others that have apps deployed are looking for ease of authenticating users using SSO capabilities and Biometrics.

Watch this space as we jointly explore more interesting aspects of enterprise mobility. EMM is but one piece of the puzzle. Enterprise mobility is a moving target, or should we just say – a ‘mobile’ target?